Singapore Turns a Year Older

Mark your calendars as Singapore turns a year older. Get ready for the exciting parade of marching contingents, spectacular aerial show by the Singapore Air Force and the largest indoor fireworks display! As our Little Red Dot celebrates its first birthday on August 9th, after the grand Golden Jubilee last year, we bring to you some fun facts about this day:

The inaugural National Day Parade (NDP) will be held in the National Stadium this year. It will officially be her first time holding the celebrations in a decade, after the stadium opened its doors a year ago after a massive make-over.

Going with the theme of Building Our Singapore of Tomorrow, the organizing committee stressed that it’ll mark the next 50 years of Singapore.

This year’s NDP logo was designed by the 19 years old student, Chelsea Lim. It consists of a geometric heart in four shades of red, which illustrates the Republic’s multi-racial and multi-religious diversity. The font is handwritten and signifies that “the future is ours to write and build”, while the upward brushstroke of the number “6” in “2016” represents the idea of looking forward. At the tip of which is a burst of five stars, depicting Singapore’s ideals as represented in the national flag.

The Parade & Ceremony involves over 3,000 people who are undergoing more than 200 hours of training before the big day.

The State Flag Flypast is to be staged along the southern coast skyline for the first time at NDP 2016. It will pass over the iconic Singapore monuments, such as the National Stadium, Singapore Flyer, Esplanade, Marina Bay Floating Platform, Gardens by the Bay, the Marina Barrage, and Marina Bay Sands, inviting Singaporeans from these locations to mark the symbolic singing of the National Anthem together with the audience in the National Stadium.

A total of 275,000 spectators are expected at the National Stadium across all of the parade shows and previews. And a total of 300,000 fun packs will be given out at this year’s NDP.

Close to 20 aerialists from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and Music and Drama Company (MDC) will perform in NDP at heights of 13m, 2 of whom would be performing in a separate act at a height of 30m.

(From left) Mr Wayne Wee, Mr Rajid Ahamed and Ms Biwa Mastura Mohamed Said are among the 20 aerialists performing at this year’s National Day Parade. (Photo: The Straits Times)

The NDP would showcase the largest indoor fireworks, accompanied by displays featuring a mix of lights, lasers as well as flame projectors, choreographed to remixes of popular NDP songs. A slew of fresh displays would include unmanned technologies such as drones, 3-D projections, and large props.

The fireworks would be 5 times the scale of the indoor fireworks set off during the opening and closing ceremonies of last year’s Southeast Asian (SEA) Games at the same venue.

NDP 2016 Theme Song features more than 300 people from diverse backgrounds playing a part in making the music video a success, aligning to NDP 2016’s theme of a cohesive society coming together to build the future of Singapore.